Trailer for Next Google Spotlight Short Goes Live

Back when Motorola still belonged to Google, the Chicago-born company started to offer 360-degree, immersive stories to Motorola devices, such as the Moto X and Moto G. Google decided to absorb Spotlight Stories into the larger company, and now Spotlight Stories is a part of Google, not the now Lenovo-owned Motorola. Regardless, Spotlight Stories still sees new releases regularly added to the platform, offering viewers a sort of Pixar-esque example of what 360-degree content might look like in the future, and there’s a new release on the horizon.

The new title is called “Pearl” and judging from the YouTube Trailer (embedded below) it appears as though this next title is to be centered around some sort of round trip and the relationships that either flourish or breakdown during such a situation. Just when this new title will hit the Google Spotlight Stories app or the YouTube channel is unclear, but we shouldn’t be too far away from a release. The only thing holding back these stories right now is – still – the lack of compatibility with a wider net of devices. While Google has already expanded compatibility to more devices – including some of their own Nexus line – it’s still hit and miss as to whether or not you’re actually get to watch the stories.

As for the general premise of Spotlight Stories, these are animated shorts that allow people to move their phone around in a 360-degree field to focus in on different elements, uncover the next part of the short or just get a different prospective on what’s going on. They’ve been received positively by critics, and some of the bigger names in Hollywood have tried their hand at directing and creating their own Spotlight Stories. Right now, being able to view a Spotlight Story is still fairly difficult, but clicking the Google Play button down below will let you know if your device is compatible or not, and while Pearl isn’t available just yet, there are other stories to take a look at – although not all of these are free, bare in mind. A nice way of showing just what can be using 360-degree’s worth of vision, these are worth checking out.